leeper@ahuta.UUCP (leeper) (02/12/85)
THE BAD SEED and Other TV Remakes
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
We all know about made-for-TV movies. The networks churn these things
out to save money over buying theatrical films. Leonard Maltin's rating
system for films in TV MOVIES is a scale from one to four or "TV-M." "TV-M"
means it was mad for television so why bother to rate it? Phillipine films
which seem to be about 90% about monsters running through jungles, Maltin
feels are cinema, but if it's made for TV, it is not really cinema. (I do,
in fact, like Maltin's book, but refusal to rate made-for-TV movies is a
little irksome.)
One of the TV filmmaker's unpleasant habits is to take a popular
classic film and remake it trading off the popularity of the original. They
did it a couple of seasons back with a very poor version of THE PHANTOM OF
THE OPERA and a much worse version of THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.
I would like to list some TV remakes that I feel are better than their
originals. The TV remake of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is the only version
to be faithful to the bitter irony of the book. I was actually shocked by
the depiction of gas warfare in TV's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and
really wanted to see the original classic film with Lew Ayres. What a let-
down! The original pulls its punches and is nowhere near as effective. I
prefer the George C. Scott version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST to the Cocteau
film and the TV edition of THIEF OF BAGDAD is the best version of the oft-
remade film. All but the last of these was shown as part of the "Hallmark
Hall of Fame," incidentally. Now there is another TV remake that is a real
improvement.
I have always liked THE BAD SEED, the film adaptation of the Maxwell
Anderson play about a woman (Nancy Kelly) who discovers her daughter (Patti
McCormack) is a remorseless murderer whose apparent innocence covers a
string of killings for items as small as Christmas decorations or the class
penmanship medal. The story is really what I liked about the 1956 version
and the realistic interplay between Patti McCormack as little Rhoda and
Henry Jones as a bullying handyman. The acting seems considerably better in
the 1985 version. David Carradine takes the role of the handyman better,
playing it as an immature child. It works much like Martin Sheen's role
worked in BADLANDS.
But the real improvement is the sinister ending. All three versions--
two films and the play--had it but the film code in the Fifties did not
allow having crime go unpunished, so an epilogue was added in which the
mother's suicide attempt fails and--get this--little Rhoda is struck by
lightning! Then all the actors come out for a curtain call and when Patti
McCormack comes out for a bow, Kelly grabs her and spanks her, apparently to
punish her for killing all those people. The last five minutes do all they
can to ruin the film, all thanks to a silly film code rule.
Suffice it to say the remake has all the best aspects of the first film
without the terrible last five minutes. It is the version I prefer to
remember.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!ahuta!leeper